Lexicography. History of British lexicography

Lexicography is an important branch of linguistics which covers the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries.

The history of lexicography goes back to Old English where its first traces are found in the form of glosses of religious books with interlinear translation from Latin. Regular bilingual English-Latin dictionaries already existed in the 15th century.

The first unilingual English dictionary, explaining words appeared in 1604. It was "A table alphabetical, containing and teaching the true writing and understanding of hard usual English words borrowed from the Hebrew, Greece, Latin or French". This dictionary of 120 pages explaining about 3000 words was compiled by Robert Cawdrey, a schoolmaster. Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabetical was the first single-language English dictionary ever published.